Volume Ii Part 10 (1/2)

The fortunes of the American army were now at the lowest ebb, so that had Howe been an efficient general it must have been either captured or entirely destroyed. Through the treason of Adjutant Demont, who had deserted to Lord Percy with complete information of their weakness, Forts Was.h.i.+ngton and Lee were captured, November 16th and 20th, with the loss of 150 killed and wounded, and 2,634 prisoners, besides valuable stores, small arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery. Manhattan Island was lost. General Charles Lee, with a considerable portion of the army, persistently refused to cross the Hudson. Was.h.i.+ngton, with the troops remaining, was forced to retreat slowly across New Jersey, the British army, under Cornwallis, at his very heels, often within cannon-shot. The New Jersey people were lukewarm, and many accepted Cornwallis's offers of amnesty. Congress, fearing that Philadelphia would be taken, adjourned to Baltimore. December 8th, Was.h.i.+ngton crossed the Delaware with less than 3,000 men. The British encamped on the opposite bank of the river. The American army was safe for the present, having secured all the boats and burned all the bridges within seventy miles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map.]

Map of Manhattan Island in 1776, showing the American Defences, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Caricature.]

General Charles Lee.

Although intended for a caricature, this is considered an excellent likeness.

Was.h.i.+ngton was soon re-enforced, and now had between five and six thousand troops. He determined to strike a bold blow that would electrify the drooping spirits of the army and the country. At Trenton lay a body of 1,200 Hessians. Christmas night Was.h.i.+ngton crossed the Delaware with 2,400 picked men. The current was swift, and the river full of floating ice; but the boats were handled by Ma.s.sachusetts fishermen, and the pa.s.sage was safely made. Then began the nine-mile march to Trenton, in a blinding storm of sleet and hail. The soldiers, many of whom were almost barefoot, stumbled on over the slippery road, s.h.i.+elding their muskets from the storm as best they could. Trenton was reached at eight o'clock on the morning of the 26th. An attack was made by two columns simultaneously. The surprise was complete, and after a half hour's struggle the Hessians surrendered. Nearly 1,000 prisoners were taken, besides 1,200 small arms and six guns. Was.h.i.+ngton safely retreated across the Delaware.

[1777]

Cornwallis, with 7,000 men, hurried from Princeton to attack the American army. But Was.h.i.+ngton, on the night of January 2, 1777, leaving his camp-fires burning, slipped around the British army, routed the regiments left at Princeton, and pus.h.i.+ng on northward went into winter quarters at Morristown.

The next campaign opened late. It was the last of August when Howe, with 17,000 men, sailed from New York into Chesapeake Bay, and advanced toward Philadelphia. Was.h.i.+ngton flung himself in his path at Brandywine, September 11th, but was beaten back with heavy loss. September 26th the British army marched into Philadelphia, whence Congress had fled.

October 4th, Was.h.i.+ngton attacked the British camp at Germantown. Victory was almost his when two of the attacking parties, mistaking each other, in the fog, for British, threw the movement into confusion, and Was.h.i.+ngton had to fall back, with a loss of 1,000 men.

In December the American commander led his ragged army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, twenty-one miles from Philadelphia. It was a period of deep gloom. The war had been waged now for more than two years, and less than nothing seemed to have been accomplished. Distrust of Was.h.i.+ngton's ability sprang up in some minds. ”Heaven grant us one great soul!” exclaimed John Adams after Brandywine. Certain officers, envious of Was.h.i.+ngton, began to intrigue for his place.

Meanwhile the army was s.h.i.+vering in its log huts at Valley Forge. Nearly three thousand were barefoot. Many had to sit by the fires all night to keep from freezing. One day there was a dinner of officers to which none were admitted who had whole trousers. For days together there was no bread in camp. The death-rate increased thirty-three per cent from week to week.

Just now, however, amid this terrible Winter at Valley Forge, Baron Steuben, a trained German soldier, who had been a pupil of Frederick the Great, joined our army. Was.h.i.+ngton made him inspector-general, and his rigorous daily drill vastly improved the discipline and the spirits of the American troops. When they left camp in the spring, spite of the hards.h.i.+ps past, they formed a military force on which Was.h.i.+ngton could reckon with certainty for efficient work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]

Baron von Steuben.

[1778]

The British, after a gay winter in Philadelphia, startled by the news that a French fleet was on its way to America, marched for New York, June 18,1778. The American army overtook them at Monmouth on the 28th; General Charles Lee--a traitor as we now know, and as Was.h.i.+ngton then suspected, forced into high place by influence in Congress--General Lee led the party intended to attack, but he delayed so long that the British attacked him instead.

The Americans were retreating through a narrow defile when Was.h.i.+ngton came upon the field, and his Herculean efforts, brilliantly seconded by Wayne, stayed the rout. A stout stand was made, and the British were held at bay till evening, when they retired and continued their march to New York. Was.h.i.+ngton followed and took up his station at White Plains.

CHAPTER V.

THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN

[1775]

At the outbreak of hostilities the thoughts of the colonists naturally turned to the Canadian border, the old battleground of the French and Indian War. Then and now a hostility was felt for Canada which had not slumbered since the burning of Schenectady in 1690.

May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen, at the head of a party of ”Green Mountain Boys,” surprised Fort Ticonderoga. Crown Point was taken two days later.

Two hundred and twenty cannon, besides other much-needed military stores, fell into the hands of the Americans. Some of these heavy guns, hauled over the Green Mountains on oxsleds the next winter, were planted by Was.h.i.+ngton on Dorchester Heights.